Monday, July 17, 2006

OMW hears from database divers that a construction permit has been filed - and granted - for the move of WJER-FM/101.7 from Dover to North Canton - somehow without showing up on the station's record in the FCC database. (And believe us, we've looked.)

Since the deadline to file that CP passed, we enlisted some of our database gurus in finding FCC information. And though we still can't find it on the commission's own website, look at what we found elsewhere!

As such, the signal may not be as robust as projected on the map above...which puts a city grade signal for 101.7/North Canton very nearly into downtown Akron and places like Tallmadge.

It also turns the station into an "other city" signal - still listenable, but not as strong - in much of its current home base of Tuscarawas County. The city grade projection cuts just short of the station's current license city of Dover. The station would still be somewhat listenable a few miles outside the above projected signal range, but it won't be a strong, local signal anymore in that area by the mere nature of the move of the 101.7 tower into the middle of Stark County.

And even if the above map is generous, there'd still be plenty of room for the new 101.7 to serve at least the southern half of Summit County with a very good signal.

Places like Montrose and Bath may be a challenge to reliably reach with the signal, but there'd certainly be no problem in Green, or in Jackson Township/North Canton - Clear Channel Akron/Canton's home base and one of the region's busiest retail areas.

OMW hears from an anonymous, unconfirmed birdie that the 101.7 antenna will be located on a tower at 22nd Street off Whipple Avenue. The facility is currently occupied by Melodynamic talk/religious WCER/900, and Cumulus rock WRQK/106.9.

But, we are not 100 percent sure that the above map is directly tied to the facilities actually specified in the construction permit. The center dot would certain be close enough to that particular location...and the power level being already set for an upgraded 6,000 watts, the projected signal map would be close enough as well.

We're digging further into this, to see if we can bolster this information with an actual FCC filing...

oa-there are 2 towers on 22nd street w of whipple nw in canton. the main tower connected to the offices of a storage company belong to wcer 900am. this station is owned by jack ambrozic and jack khouri. the second tower is connected to a shack that serves as rock 107/k105 cumulus canton/salem secondary to their primary tower alignment on martindale rd. david5258.

I was just going to point out that I believed (and confirmed by double-checking FCC data) that WCER/900 was on one of those towers.

I'm not sure where Mortenson comes in here, though... did they at one time own what's now WRQK/106.9? I know it was once paired with WHLO/640 as WHLQ, and Mortenson owned WHLO for some time, so it would make sense. I just can't remember if they also picked up then-WHLQ.

oa-mortensen owned 98.1 wtof(Tower of Faith) and wtof am on 900 before they picked up whlo640. 900 started out as wand, was best known as wnyn(nine-get it) in the 70s, mortensen picked it up as wtof am for a short time in the late 70s before picking up 640. wtof then was sold to an urban group who ran it as wbxt before running out of money in less than 2 years. jack ambrozic bought a dark signal approximately 15 yrs ago with jack khoury and another silent partner.whlo640 in their newstalk days owned whlq which became woos and then rock 107. at one time winw1520(nowjoy1520) and rock 107 were sister stations. prior to buying wcer, jack ambrozic managed rock107 and another christian formatted station outside ohio. long story short, mortenesen could have been active on either one of the towers.

As far as I know - WJER is not going on the WCER tower (the newer, guyed tower) AND - the older stand alone tower (the Mortenson Tower) is supposed to be coming down and replaced within the next year - I'm sure you could find the CP for the new tower by searching WRQK on the FCC's webpage. My guess is that WJER is going on that tower - which I believe is still owned by Mortenson, but I could be wrong on that.BTW david, Jack Khoury was never a partner in the radio station to my knowledge, only the Jackson Station Storage buildings.

I recall several years ago when Clear Channel purchased WJER, sales people from WKDD were on the streets teasing a new rock station for Canton. At the time I was at WRQK and we all thought it was a real possiblity. I'm positive the only reason Bob & Tom were placed on WRQK was a preemptive strike against a new rock station from Clear Channel on 101.7.

There are plenty of towers used by both companies. I'm not suprised WJER could end up on the WRQK tower. I don't see WRQK being sold. Rock 107 still puts almost 3 1/2 million to the bottom line with little expense. The building (the dump on martindale) is paid for, the staff is small and underpaid.